


PASSENGER ━━ mad sweeney

by morganel



Category: American Gods (TV)
Genre: Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, F/M, Road Trips, Rough Sex, Slow Burn, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:28:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29818059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganel/pseuds/morganel
Summary: The girl that finds lost things always finds the 7ft leprachaun one way or another.Mad Sweeney x Female!OC
Relationships: Mad Sweeney (American Gods)/Original Character(s), Mad Sweeney (American Gods)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

_**THE GIRL**_ had thought she was hallucinating when she first saw him. A seven foot tall man, passsed out against her motorhome. The orange light from the lamp posts around him shone down against his face, highlighting the ginger strands of his hair that had been pushed back from his face. A tress or two had fallen down in front of his eyes; they were closed, eyelashes twitching.

She poked him.

“Fuckin’ hell!” Jolted awake quicker than she had expected and more aggressively, too. The girl stumbled backward so fast she almost tripped over her feet and fell but managed to hold up her weight, eyes glittering. The man was staring at her.

“Whaddya want?” Voice thick with Irish twang, slurry and intoxicated. She regained her composure even though her heart still thundered. Then she crossed her arms over her chest.

“You’re sleeping against my van.”

“Ya van? What van?”

“The one you’re sleeping against, idiot.” She snarled. Thought about grabbing a weapon from her motohome and giving it a swing or a jab ─ just in self defense. “Can you fuck off now?”

A few seconds of staring with dark, dreery eyes, before they began to close. Drifting off again. She gritted her teeth together. She weighed up leaving him out here in the cold, or somehow managing to drag him into the warmer region of her van. As much as it sounded like she was the boogeyman, kidnapping some giant in the early hours of the morning, it was much more of the opposite.

She had a knack of finding things - at the beginning, that’s all she found. _Things_. Then it became animals. Now _him_.

Maybe grabbing the scruff of his jacket and trying to haul him up the wobbly steps of her van would find a way of hitting her back in the face. She was trying to benefit him, although by his groaning and incoherent growling, he didn’t seem to want the help.

But arms aching, fingers numb and knuckles gripping his jacket so hard they turned white, he was already guiltily hanging half way out of her hearty abode like a dead fish. The RV had weighed down to one side like a freaking seesaw.

She’d already gotten herself too far into something incredibly fucking exhausting. And the urge to kick him in the head grew larger by the second.

“I’m trying to help you, here!” The girl protested, but as much as she tried to push and prod, this seven foot breezeblock was unmovable. She began to think he’d passed out completely now and she was just talking to herself. “Why did I even try? Cause it’s freezing tonight. Didn’t want to leave you out there in the cold, that’s why-”

“I’m not a fuckin’ cat.” She gasped. Shot upright over his blanched, drunken figure, hands hovering, clawed, above his shoulders. He didn’t seem to be in the mood to be helped. Didn’t seem to be used to the idea of it, either.

He blinked up at her, eyes holding hers until she looked away down at the floor. Then he shifted. Grabbing onto the side of a cabinet, pulled himself to his feet, rocking precariously back and forth on his feet like he was about to fall over but didn’t. He couldn’t even stand up straight, arched over so he wouldn’t smack his head against the roof.

The girl held in a laugh as she stared at the broad expanse of his back for a few moments, he continued looking around like he was going to put down a deposit or something. She thought that sometime soon, he was going to step out of the RV, but instead he began to trudge towards the back of the vehicle, towards her fold out mattress. She always thought it was suitable for more than one person, but as he sat down on it, it seemed like she had been wrong all along.

“What - what are you doing?!”

"You don’t want me gettin’ frostbite out there, do ya?” She stood there. The air from the open door blew inside, chilly. Rose a few hairs on the nape of her neck.

The man rested his head against the mattress before she could even take a breath in, let alone shut the door. She quickly did both of those things, before advancing towards his resting place there, in her van like he owned the thing.

“Can I just get a name before you hit the sack?” She inquired in a prying, curious voice. “So I know who’s gonna pay me for their nights stay?”

It was a joke. Although delivered rhetoric enough that it sounded believable.

“The name’s Mad Sweeney,” He muttered, muffled against her pillow. “ _Leprechaun_.” Said it like it was a profession or something.

“H-huh?!” She gaped, staring over him once more. His eyes twitching again, eyeballs rolling left and right beneath the skin. Immersed in a dream she couldn’t experience. She thought about reaching out and poking him again, but decided against it.

_Leprechaun?!_

She’d sleep with one eye open.

With a narrowed look in the sleeping man’s direction, she replied quietly, “My name’s Mag,“ before sauntering towards the drivers seat and nestling down there.


	2. Chapter 2

_**EVEN THE**_ sunlight piercing through the windscreen onto her face wasn’t enough to wake Mag up. Her face was growing hot under its rays and although she was uncomfortable, she hadn’t stirred awake or moved through the entire night.

She wasn’t used to other feet shuffling around her abode either, but not even that could stir her from her deep sleep.

Until a newspaper landed smack _bang_ in the middle of her face and she had never screamed so loud in her life. Her yowl was so deafening that even the culprit of her rude awakening let out a startled yell, smacking down the newspaper on the cabinet and giving the girl a hard stare.

She sleepily shifted around, eyes finding his, clinging there for a few moments. Her mind tried to process.

 _Large ginger fucker hunched in my van. In_ my _van? How the fuck?_

Then it came back to her. Her hauling him inside here, out of the cold. She remembered him giving her a particularly hard time, swearing every other word. If she was as strong as him, she would’ve dropkicked him out of the door as soon as he muttered one vile curse in her direction.

But she wasn’t. Hadn’t even been half victorious in tugging him inside her place until he gave her the benefit of the doubt, woke up and dragged himself into her bed.

Mad Sweeney. That was his name.

And at least Sweeney had dropped the newspaper. He’d swatted her like a damn spider, the nerve of him!

“You have some drool on yer mouth, Mags-”

“How’d you know my name?” Or at least, close enough. Hadn’t he passed out by the time she’d managed to spit it out? She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, scowling.

“I heard ya, sweetheart, ” He muttered. Didn’t look particularly comfortable standing there, the longer she looked. “Ya didn’t have ta give me a place to sleep like a fuckin’ Samaritan or somethi-”

“Yeah, well, you were sprawled against my RV like I’d thrown you outside. Didn’t look very good on me.”

As much as she didn’t appreciate his foul language, his words didn’t sting. He wasn’t angry at her, not like he even should be. He’d done him a favor, small as it was.

After a few more seconds of him staring awkwardly like the Hunchback of Notre Dam, he approached her, and slumped down in the passengers seat. Mag swallowed hard ─ their knees were touching but she didn’t move them, too busy watching him scan the empty road around them. She’d parked in a traffic stop off a residental street, one where the lamps above actually worked so she’d run less risk of getting broken into.

She felt stupid thinking that now, considering she’d let this strange man who considered himself to be a leprechaun into her ridiculously small quarters. And as rowdy as he was, a strange calm had stilled her.

“What’s up with what you said?” She said. Contemplated starting the engine but wasn’t sure if he wanted to come along on her ride or not. “About… being a leprechaun.”

“Ya thought I was jokin’?” Sweeney gave her a surprised look.

“Well, I don’t believe you.”

“Do you really want me to show ya?-”

Mag didn’t really know the full extent of what that meant, or what she’d be getting herself into.

“-Well, are you gonna start te engine or not?”

She finally looked across at him. Studied his face for a lot longer than she had before. Almost like if she looked hard enough, the leprechaun would jump right out.

It didn’t.

Mag decided to start driving. Maybe it was better to not ask questions, to spare her of the ridiculously cryptic answers.

The motorhome hurled off down the street for about half a mile until Mag’s mind was fixated on only the uncomfortable sound of the silence, and the more she milled over the lack of words between them, she wanted to say something, anything, to break the ice.

“You didn’t really answer my question.”

“If ya would’ve heard me right, I said I’d show y-”

“Well, I don’t exactly know what you meant by that, so-”

“What gives ya the impression that I can’t possibly be a leprechaun, ey?” Sweeney shot at her. She noticed then that he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, but didn’t call him out on it. Maybe she’d brake hard and his head would smash through the windshield ─ only if she really felt like going through all the trouble.

The motorhome hit a steady 40. “From what I’ve read, leprechauns are, like, a few inches tall, right? A foot tall? And they wear little green suits and little green top hats?”

Sweeney listened intently. One side of his lip quirking up. “Where’d ya hear that, again?”

“…Wikipedia?”

“E-fucking-xactly! Ain’t never seen a real one until now, have ya? That’s why you’re so surprised, I get it.”

Mag began to pick up speed. Chewed on her borrom lip until the skin began to peel. Shifty eyes catching a glance at the old map against the dashboard. A red pin stuck into a random location, some far out place that she probably wouldn’t reach before sundown. “Isn’t the myth true, though?”

“What myth?”

“If you’re lucky enough to catch a leprachaun, you can force them to lead you to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…”

“End of the fuckin’ rainbow..."

“…Maybe you and my map are linked? Maybe I’m about to find a big pot of gold when I get to where I need to be, all thanks to you and your crazy rambling-”

" That’s it, pull over.”

“ _Huh_?”

“Didn’t ya hear me? Pull over already or I’ll do it for ya!”

“I’m driving, not you!”

" Give it a rest, sweetheart, and pull over.”

“Whatever you want to show me, you can do it whilst I’m driving.”

“You’ll probably freak te fuck out and wrap us around a tree,” Mag could see him roll his eyes from her peripheral vision. Press his head back against the cushioned headrest. Looking at the road more than she was. “You’re so stubborn, ya know? I’m not gonna hurt ya. Thought you woulda figured that out by now.”

Mag shifted around in her seat. Without giving warning to the driver behind her, she took a sharp left into a side road. A horn blared past from the main road as she navigated the terrain that had grown rocky beneath the wheels, slowing to a stop then. Branches brushed against her window pane.

Mag took a heavy breath before she turned to face him.

“Alright. Show me.”

Sweeney’s eyes were sparkling. “Alright, then.”

With that, he lifted one of his hands. Rubbing together his three forefingers in a slow motion. His movements quickened as Mag watched intently, focusing on his hands. The friction built, almost sparking beneath the pads of his fingers until…

a single gold coin fell. Right into the palm of his other hand with a little clink and Mag’s face dropped. Then another coin. Another after that. More and more until his other hand was almost full, overflowing. He then closed his fist over the gold coins, tipped them into the drink holder between them.

Mag released a breath she didn’t now she was holding. She’d never seen anything like that before. Never in her life, not once. Her interest had been piqued, if that was what Sweeney had wanted in the first place.

She grabbed his hand, ran her fingers over his, eyes so narrowed that creases ran across her forehead. She even slid her fingers absentmindedly beneath the sleeve of his jacket, trying to find the cold surface of a hidden coin, but there was nothing else there than the soft, warm plane of his skin.

She had leaned in closer than she realized. Felt his warm breath, still coated thick with last night’s liquor, against the little hairs on the sides of her scalp. She let go of his hand and pulled away from him, turning back to the road.

“Seen everything you wanted to see, Mags?” He said lightly, watching her face that was still slightly scrunched up in confusion. She hadn’t completely turned a cold shoulder to myths and folklore, to _magic_ , but to see it right in front of her very eyes… a shiver had ran right down her spine. She wasn’t sure if it had weakened her beliefs or strengthened them; what he had done was definitely something, she had to admit, but there had to be an explanation. Some sort of science behind it.

Maybe her shoulder was colder than she originally thought it was.

“I’ve seen… _something_.” She muttered. Then followed the back road around until she found herself pulling back onto the highway again.

Every few seconds, she zoned out, saw those gold coins spilling from Sweeney’s hand out of thin air. Then she’d cast a look down at those same coins piled up between them, although not once would she look up at him.

Damn _leprachaun_? ─ she never would’ve thought.

“Where are ya headed, hm?” The nosy bastard inquired, changing the subject, gesturing to the map on the dashboard with his hand. His fingers curled to pick it up, but her hand flew across to meet his, slapping across his knuckles.

Now it was her turn to be bitter. “Don’t go around, fucking touching things!”

Sweeney stayed stuck there with her hand plastered over his, glaring at the side of her face with an intrigued look. When Mag finally peered across at him, he had snaked his hand out from beneath hers, and turned to look at the road. Pulled a hand rolled cigarette from his left pocket and a lighter from the other.

Mag shifted in her seat.

“Gettin’ your panties in a twist over a map?” He took a long drag. Mag’s face flushed, and she readjusted her hands on the wheel. “Why’s it so important to ya?”

“For one, my panties are the last thing you need to be talking about,” She addressed quickly, waving one of her hands in front of her face. “The map… is complicated. It just leads me places. Where I find things.”

“And you’re takin’ the piss out of _me_ because I’m a leprechaun?” Smoke drifted past her face and twirled out of the gap in her window. “Some fuckin’ world we live in.”

Mag pressed her lips together to compress the laugh that would’ve came flying out. Once she’d composed herself, she side-eyed him. Turned a corner. “Why do you want to come with me, anyway?” She pressed.

Sweeney reached across her. Threw the butt of his cigarette from her side of the window. Mag ducked her head quickly, trying to keep her eyes on the road beneath his arm. He was deliberately being distractive. Trying to boil her blood.

“Hey! Get out of my face, already!” She squeaked. With one hand firmly gripping the wheel, she used her other to try pushing his arm out of her sight. He found it funny, an amusing skirmish, although Mag, who’d scraped through her driving test if she’d even passed it at all, was already sweating profusely from Sweeney’s antics. “Do you want us to crash?!”

Her hand slipped from the wheel at the last second, just as Sweeney moved out of her line of vision, sinking smugly into the passenger seat once more. The RV veered near the edge of the road but Mag had managed to keep it from running off, both hands clenching around the wheel.

“Piece of shit.”

“Well, you’re no fun,” He was still grinning. Almost had one foot up on the dashboard, pushing her to her last nerve, pushing his luck.

His teasing was harmless so far, but she still wanted to pull over on a street corner and shove him out. A part of her was guarded, one eye on the road and one eye on him, ready to karate chop him in the neck if he decided to try anything. Women that let random men to sleep in their proximity were usually found dead in ditches, especially from what she’d heard.

Although she wasn’t shaking in her boots yet. Wasn’t even a little disturbed that this man called himself a Leprechaun ─ at first glance, he didn’t look like one. And even at second, he still didn’t.

And when she gave him a quick look between a red light and an orange, she still couldn’t imagine him as a foot tall man in a green suit, although the gold coins between them told a different tale.


End file.
